George Karl says Nuggets won’t overreact to Game 1 loss

Posted By
Benjamin Hochman
On
April 19, 2011 @ 1:13 pm
In
General Nuggets,George Karl |
No Comments

OKLAHOMA CITY — There has been much ado, perhaps even a hullabaloo, about the Nuggets allowing 72 points to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Heading into Wednesday’s Game 2 (Denver is down to Oklahoma City, 0-1), Nuggets coach George Karl brought up the notion of overreacting.

“We did some things we really wanted to do against them, so do you want to change up and take more concern about Westbrook and Durant scoring big numbers?” Karl asked aloud after today’s practice. “Or do you want to make sure you keep your foundation of what you definitely want to do against the team? I personally think it’s a game of little adjustments than bigger adjustments.”

Karl said that Wilson Chandler was Denver’s best defender on Durant, but it’s likely that Danilo Gallinari will start on Durant, while Chandler could spend some time on Westbrook. But Karl wants more from both guys on the other end (even though Gallo did score 18 in Game 1)

“Both Chandler and Gallinari have their good moments offensively, but I wish we maybe had more from them offensively,” the coach said after an intense and spirited practice at Oklahoma City Arena.

As for Denver’s offense, which shot 50.6 percent in Game 1, Karl said, “We’re not going to change playing as a team – we’re not going to change the rhythm and flow of how we got to be playing as well as we played. But I’m not going to force the ball to anybody – they have to executive the stuff that we run. Everybody thinks it’s easy to do, but it’s not. We’re not a one-on-one, isolation basketball team anymore. We’re almost the total opposite. We’re a basketball team.”